Feature Story

The growing popularity of social media raises all sorts of questions about online security. According to a recent Twitter SEC filing, approximately 8.5 percent of all users on Twitter are bots, or fake accounts used to produce automated posts. While some of these accounts have commercial purposes, others are influence bots used to generate opinions about a certain topic.

A USC team composed of faculty and graduate students received first place for accuracy and second place for timing. Aram Galstyan, a research associate professor at the USC Viterbi Department of Computer Science and project leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI), led the victorious Trojans.

"Spamming behavior has evolved," Galstyan said. "Current bots tend to be more human-like, and people have realized that they can be used for propagating certain kind of information, possibly influencing discussions on specific topics."Read More

Feature Story

The growing popularity of social media raises all sorts of questions about online security. According to a recent Twitter SEC filing, approximately 8.5 percent of all users on Twitter are bots, or fake accounts used to produce automated posts. While some of these accounts have commercial purposes, others are influence bots used to generate opinions about a certain topic.

A USC team composed of faculty and graduate students received first place for accuracy and second place for timing. Aram Galstyan, a research associate professor at the USC Viterbi Department of Computer Science and project leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI), led the victorious Trojans.

"Spamming behavior has evolved," Galstyan said. "Current bots tend to be more human-like, and people have realized that they can be used for propagating certain kind of information, possibly influencing discussions on specific topics."Read More